What Matters Most In Education? Six-Word Stories

Legend has it that Ernest Hemingway scribbled this brilliant six-word story on a napkin to win a bet. Fact-checking website Snopes.com cannot find any source or publication to verify the story is real. Nevertheless, it maintains an oft-quoted place in literary folklore.

Today, there are websites dedicated to collecting and sharing just about any topic possible in a six-word story. Larry Smith launched the Six-Word Memoirs Project in 2006 and now hosts more than one million stories. There is a section of his website dedicated to inspiring schools and students to share our stories.

Weaving a six-word story activity into your advisory program, professional development session, or regular classroom would spark meaningful follow-up questions and conversation. Imagine the diverse perspectives from a share out on this statement: “Sum up United States history in a six-word story.”

Here are one school’s pandemic experiences in six-word stories.

Prior to the pandemic, I reached out on Twitter for educators to share what matters most to them in education. Dozens responded. Not surprisingly, most stories centered on their students, on relationships, on caring.

—— What Matters Most In Education ——

Inspire people to do amazing things.

People matter more than programs and process.

Facilitating ability to connect the dots.

Changing the amazing world every day.

We learn together. We grow together.

Learning changes lives-embrace the journey!

Mistakes & learning. Passions & interests. Life-long education.

The students need our best work!

Make sure they know you care!

I love to help people learn.

Every child, every day, every way.

It could be doing much better.

We serve students’ learning.

Begin where they are, love unconditionally.

It’s the journey, not the destination.

Make people better, every single day.

Be the change, make a difference.

Kids aren’t less human than adults.

Love the heck out of people.

All students matter. Think. Create. Listen.

Children deserve every opportunity to succeed!

Suddenly it was revolutionary, “knowledge.” Fine.

Students demonstrate learning in many ways

Differentiated learning now, inspiring lifelong learning.

Education must be different. Not better.

Blog post was updated in January 2021.